CORPUS CHRISTI — If someone fashion savy, scrolls through their TikTok, chances are they’ve seen the videos of people comparing their face to wheels of color, different shades of drapes, swatches or A.I. filters.
The TikToks show the resurgence of color analysis, a process where people try to identify the colors that will made them shine and the ones that don’t.
One Corpus Christi woman is taking the TikToK trend to the next level, using color to help people in their quest for confidence.
“We want to look professional,” Christine Bruno said. “We want to look approachable, you know, warm and inviting. Color analysis really helps to provide that."
From the front of the Bruno Family’s London, Texas home are two massive windows. Inside was Christine Bruno in her coral jumpsuit making last-minute touches before her guests arrived.
After a ring of the doorbell, the mother of five opened the door with a big, smile. “Welcome,” she said.
On the other side of the two massive windows is a large mirror that sits in the middle of them. It is leaned against the wall facing a pink chair and a waist-tall cart with dozens of drapes of all colors, beyond the rainbow. This is where her clients sit for a color analysis.
Bruno converted the home’s dining room into her business, House of Colour Corpus Christi, a personal-style franchise that began in the U.K.
“We find out what colors make you glow and make your skin really healthy and pretty and youthful,” Bruno said.
On the wall facing the foyer is a framed picture of a color wheel with all four seasons in each corner. Smack dab in the center of the wheel reads, ‘House of Colour.’
“I saw 50 clients in 6 weeks which is, like amazing,” Bruno said.
She opened her location in May 2024 and is the only House of Colour south of San Antonio.
“In October of 2023, I had seen friends that were doing it and I had my colors done and I fell in love with the process,” Bruno said.
Before heading to the mirror, Bruno explains the color wheel to clients.
“The top is a yellow-based warm,” Bruno said as she pointed to the colors of Autumn and Spring.
The bottom are blue-based, cool seasons,” she said as she pointed to Summer and Winter.
Each season has 36 different colors.
“Winter and Spring are very saturated colors,” Bruno said. “They’re very vivid colors, they’re very clear. Spring is very splashy, right? Pretty, fun, and splashy colors. Summer and Autumn are more desaturated.”
The top of the wheel where Autumn and Spring are, was framed in gold. Bruno said that is what color jewelry goes best with those seasons.
The bottom half of the wheel, where Winter and Spring are, was framed in silver.
Bruno also matches clients with lipstick and other makeup that is best with their skin tone.
“We are going to be looking at your undertones,” Bruno said. “So, two layers deep is where the undertones are held. That’s where the melanin in our skin is held, So we are going to be looking to layers deep into that, in natural light, without any makeup against our precision dyed drapes. And, so, that’s how we are going to be able to tell which colors look best on you and which maybe don’t look as great.”
To get that natural light, Bruno seats clients on the pink chair facing themselves in the mirror leaning against the two big windows.
Bruno’s consults are between two and 2 ½ hours as she places different colors of drapes over the client’s shoulder comparing them.
“Warm and cool,” Bruno said as she lifted one drape of brown from the client, revealing a navy drape underneath.
Samantha, one of Bruno’s children, acts as an assistant observing her mom and guessing which season the client was.
Because she’s watched the color analysis more than a dozen times, she already was pretty knowledgeable about what looked good and what didn’t –sometimes guessing who was what, before a client was even draped.
“We decide if you’re yellow based warm or blue based cool,” Bruno said. “Then we get you to season from that.”
After a client’s season is picked, the process is narrowed down to sub-seasons.
Bruno said there are 16 sub-seasons per season with descriptors such as light, dark, clear, true, etc.
“It was fun,” Erin Bevan, a client, said. “It was eye opening.”
Bevan, like Bruno, is a London ISD parent and mom of three.
“I look even redder,” Bevan said as Bruno placed a blue based red drape on her.
“Ya, you got shadowy right here and then the chin took on some of that color,” Bruno said.
Bevan is a blue pastel Spring.
“I could have a better wardrobe, you know make the right choices in what I purchase,” Bevan said. “Build that capsule wardrobe over the next few years so that I’m not wasting money.”
“You’re closet becomes very intentional and coordinated,” Bruno said. “Your hair, your makeup, your shoes, your accessories.”
Bruno said she planned to go to company training on how to style women in certain clothes of different shades.
“If you know you’re wearing good colors, then you see yourself in the mirror and you’re like ‘Oh, I’m looking good today. I’m feeling good today,’ right,” Bruno said.
Bruno said she loves to make people feel confident.
“They just transform right in front of my eyes,” Bruno said. “It is the coolest process to watch.”
She also said someone can wear colors outside of their season.
“Everything I tell you today are tools not rules,” Bruno said. "Whatever makes you feel beautiful."
Bruno’s consults cost anywhere between $300 - $325. A luxury, she said is worth it.
“It’s a worthy investment in yourself because you deserve to feel beautiful and handsome in what you do,” Bruno said.
